American flag — too offensive for those who think freedom is free

But putting somebody else's flag on the floor is cool

[UPDATED - the flag has been re-allowed, scroll to bottom for details]

On Memorial Day and Memorial Day weekend, Americans honor their fallen soldiers, those whose lives were lost in wars that won, sustained, and protected the freedoms Americans enjoy. Many other nations and peoples owe their freedoms to blood spilled by American soldiers as well, but in general we ask nothing of foreign nations in the way of thanks. We didn’t do it for their gratitude – only for their freedom.

But in America – on our own soil – if you have no gratitude for the fallen dead, and if you have no special fondness for the families of military people, then the minimum asked of you on a weekend like this is to just STHU. Go bar-b-que something, hang with the family, do whatever, but in general get out of the way of people who want to honor our fallen warriors. Especially in Texas, where love of country is actually cool.

But…………..apparently not in Mansfield, TX, a suburb in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Carol Cavazos of local CBS Channel 11 reports this: In short, a woman, who is in a military family, who hung a 3×5 American flag in her cube in preparation for Memorial Day weekend, came to work Friday to find that a co-worker had taken the flag down and left it on the floor, and had complained to their boss, saying she “found the flag offensive”.

Yeah. The “offended person” was also not born on US soil.

The name of the place is Kindred Hospital in Mansfield, which serves “medically complex patients”. I don’t think that’s a bad place, or that the rank and file people are evil or unpatriotic. But they do have a contact form. They also have phone numbers and emails at the site, but I don’t really want to encourage a deluge of “input”. An “ahem” I think will suffice to get the idea across.

The person who brought the flag is one of 4 hospital supervisors who share an office. The “offended” woman also works in that office. The article says she was born in Africa and has lived here 14 years, but does not specify whether she’s a naturalized American citizen. But she was “offended”, and took it upon herself to take the flag down and put it on the floor (the boss in this story did not do it, the “offended” person did).

Our patriotic employee reports that

hospital higher ups had told her some patients’ families and visitors had also complained.
.
“I was told it wouldn’t matter if it was only one person,” she said. “It would have to come down.”
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McLucas said hospital bosses told her as far as patriotism was concerned, the flag flying outside the hospital building would have to suffice.

Yeah, I just bet that several patients’ families and visitors complained about the presence of an American flag in a woman’s cubicle. Indeed. I call those higher-ups liars and cowards. The patriotic woman has apparently mentioned something to higher-ups at corporate HQ in Kentucky, but Ms Cavazos was unable to get any response from them as of yet.

Babe, don’t hold your breath. But I do hope you seek and can find employment at a place where it’s OK to be a patriot.

People who live in America, who enjoy our freedoms as either a citizen or a resident, need not honor the men died to secure that freedom. Part of freedom means you get to be an ungrateful, low-life cretin if you want to. I am similarly free to encourage those who are offended by our flag to go live somewhere else too.

Likewise, a business that will not trouble itself to defend an employee who is expressing an entirely valid viewpoint in a way that’s acceptable by any reasonable standard from political correctness Nazis, I am free to never do business with, and to ridicule publicly, as long as I tell only the truth.

Kindred Hospital of Mansfield = moral cowards = FAIL.

That is all.

[UPDATE Wednesday 3:10PM EDT : The corporate HQ website indicates that the patriotic woman has been given permission to re-hang the flag. Apparently there was considerable "input" from normal American citizens in the last 24 hours. As far as I'm concerned the Kindred Healthcare corporate people have acted decently. What I take issue with is (1) the "offended" person, who I hope goes to a country that she's proud to live in, and (2) the gutless cowards running the Mansfield facility, who should have told the "offended" person to take the rest of the day off, then show up tomorrow with a box for her personal belongings.]